Monthly update from the Research Design Service, bringing you tips, insights and experiences of the funding application process. The blog will touch on various themes in the design process and highlight what you need to know before you make a research application. Accessibility statement.
Who better to find out about what funding committees are looking for in your application than the director of one of the NIHR programmes. This month we're doing just that and featuring a guest blog from the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme!
Our blog this month features a conversation between two public contributors reflecting on their experiences of working on ‘That Co-production Podcast!’ recorded during the lockdown.
Funders are always looking for efficiencies and value for money in any research and so there is much interest in innovative trial designs. Read our blog this month to find out about one such desgin - the platform trial which uses the golden standard of a clinical trial but evaluates multiple treatments simultaneously.
Our RDSblog this month will show you some ways to embed knowledge mobilisation throughout your research - a vital part of any applied health and social care project. Knowledge mobilisation (KMb) is often used as an umbrella term covering impact and the timely movement of research into practice. Read on to find out more about how to plan KMb and where to find support.
Public health research generates evidence around factors which determine population health. The objective is to use this evidence to propose interventions and policies to help improve health and well-being and reduce health inequalities. It sounds easy and yet requires navigating multi-agency collaborative partnerships, with often differing priorities, to deliver good research. Our blog this month discusses the issues and signposts to the support teams will need.
Part of our role in the RDS is to to provide guidance on the best methodologies to answer your research question. At times, this can involve using different approaches and combinations that may be new to research teams. Our RDSblog this month addresses one such situation, the role qualitative research can play in informing health economic evaluations.
As we start 2021 we are still in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and continue our support for researchers online. We learnt a lot in the past year about how to move consultation online whilst ensuring that we don't lose our personal touch or fall foul of technologies quirks. Our blog this month is full of those acquired hints and tips, supporting you to make the most of your online meetings.
Have you ever wondered – or been asked – about the differences between patient and public involvement (PPI) activities and qualitative research? Our RDSblog this month explores this issue.
Routinely collected data contain large quantities of health and social care information, usually covering whole populations and often spanning prolonged time periods. Such data can be repurposed and underpin new research whilst reducing costs, time and resources. Until recently accessing this data has been a big challenge, but joint efforts are underway to improve this.
A big push in research is to increase the efficiency and pace of studies. Innovative design methods can play a role in that by allowing multiple questions to be answered in a single study. Find out more about what you could use in your study and how the RDS can help you navigate the challenges.
Social care has risen up the political agenda and there has been an injection of funds into social care research but there are some serious challenges faced by social care researchers. Our RDSblog this month looks at those challenges and introduces an RDS model of support to help researchers engage and develop competitive and relevant social care applications.
Despite being an indispensable part of research for many funding bodies and programs, health economics is still an enigma for many researchers. Our RDSblog this month looks at the economic questions we need to incorporate into our research and illustrates how health economics can be used to support public health, health promotion, and disease prevention policies such as the ones we've seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Public Health Research aims to generate evidence on issues that determine population health such as genetic, environmental, and social factors. The objective is then to use this knowledge to propose interventions and policies, to help improve health and well-being and reduce health inequalities. Find out here what the RDS is doing to support this effort and how in turn we can help you apply for funding.
Promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in research is about emphasising that every person eligible to take part should be offered the same opportunity to do so regardless of socio-economic deprivation and personal characteristics such as age and sex. Researchers wishing to apply for NIHR funding need to demonstrate how issues around equality, diversity and inclusion have been considered in their research plans and what steps have been taken to ensure that the research sample is representative of the population at which the study is targeted. Our blog this month highlights the importance of promoting EDI in research, how these issues have been highlighted by the current COVID-19 pandemic, and how your local Research Design Service can help you address these crucial issues in your research plans.
Public involvement is a vital ingredient in any research funding application. However, due to lockdown many of our go-to methods for including and involving people in the design process have become redundant. So this month, our blog is a supportive guide on how to continue to do public involvement during the current Covid-19 pandemic. We hope you find it helpful.
Despite the ongoing situation with Coronavirus (COVID-19) RDS will continue to support people developing applications for health and social care research. Our blog this month talks about how we have stopped face-to-face meetings and have moved to a virtual consultation service using email, telephone and videoconferencing.
Social care research is a priority area for NIHR funding with many new opportunities for social care practitioners and researchers. But where do things stand regarding robust research methodologies that can be used to build an evidence-base for effective social care practice? Do we need to have a heated debate....?
Population health interventions are essential to reduce health inequalities and tackle other public health priorities, but often due to practical, political and ethical reasons they are not amenable to randomised trial manipulation. Natural experiment approaches are a way of providing evidence in such circumstances, but as our blog this month discusses they need to draw on a combination of methods to deliver results.
Introducing our RDS experienced advisers with extra i4i training to help support the move into advising SMEs with their invention for innovation applications.
The Minimum Clinically Important Difference is a key aspect of any study that evaluates a healthcare intervention. It encourages you, as a researcher, to think about and try to cautiously estimate the impact that the intervention, and therefore your research, can make.
Clinical trials have been very successful in evaluating the effectiveness of new treatments. However, over recent years the cost of trials has been steadily increasing, putting pressure on limited healthcare and research resources. Our blog this month talks about the adaptive design approach to improve efficiency.
A good quality plain English summary (PES) provides an overview of the whole of your research study, so that readers can understand the first time they read it. It sounds easy doesn't it, yet many applications fall at this first hurdle. Read this month's blog to find out how to improve your PES and catch the funding stream's eye.
Ever wanted to see what Co-production would look like in practice? Our blog this month is a supurb example of how it is possible even when you start out as a novice to the process.
Applied health and social care research is all about finding better ways to prevent ill health, treat diseases and improve services, with the ultimate goal of influencing changes in practice. This month’s blog talks about how to use your dissemination plans wisely throughout your research project to raise awareness, reach influencers and build your network.
The whole business of submitting applications is to obtain funding to carry out your research, so you need to make sure your bid is properly costed. This month's blog guides you through all the aspects you will need to consider, where to look for guidance and tools that will help you get the right result.
Demonstrating research impact is becoming increasingly important, as funders need to be confident that they are investing public money in projects that will benefit people living with health conditions or using services. There are many different ways of thinking about impact and our blog this month guides you through the steps to help you write your own impact plan.
We can all have great ideas for research, but if you're intending to apply for funding it's vital that you check your idea is novel. It's the first check any funding panel will make, so let us help you jump that first hurdle and follow the tips in this month's RDSblog.
Considering ethics at research design stage is vital to strengthen your funding application! Read our case study which illuminates that even seemingly low risk studies can raise considerable concerns.
In the increasingly competitive world of research funding, just how do you stand out from the crowd and ensure your project lands on the top of the funding pile? Read this month's blog and make sure you have the essential ingredients for success.
'Never work with children (young people) or animals' or so the quote goes, well we're just going to change your mind with this month's blog on the inspiring young adult patient and public involvement group YAPPI!
We all have research ideas bubbling under the surface just waiting for a commissioned call that fits our research idea perfectly... only thing to do now is to turn it into an application! Read on to see what's needed to craft a quality application even with a tight turnaround time.
Intellectual Property: What is it and why does it matter? Identifying where Intellectual Property exists is the first step, as unless it is identified, it cannot be captured, protected and exploited. Read our latest blog and we'll help guide you through IP.
So as NIHR sets its sights on funding research ideas from the social care front-line what does this mean for researchers? Read our latest blog and pick up some great tips on how to focus your application and think about the impact it will have on services, recipients and their careers.
NIHR Fellowships are all about supporting individuals with the potential to become future leaders in health and social care research. They are prestigious and highly competitive awards! Give yourself the best chance for success by attending RDS one-to-one advice sessions, seminars, workshops, mock interviews and read about our insider knowledge of the panel!
Do you think that 'co-production' is just the latest buzz word in research? Read on, as this month we are celebrating the benefits, sharing good practice and demonstrating that co-production might be the quickest way to get your research recommendations implemented into practice!
Quality in qualitative research, why is this an issue? Why is this important? Our blog this month highlights the common NIHR panel feedback issues around qualitative research, showing you how to navigate them whilst making the most of the variety and vast number of methods qualitative research has to offer.
Can you tell us in three sentences what your research is about and why it's important? No? Read our blog to find ways to hone your research question and become more competitive for funding.
Are you struggling to make time to write your grant application? Our grant development and writing retreat might be just what you need!
In our first blog, Claire Rosten writes about how the RDS can be your critical friend and worth getting to know before you make a research application.